How David Barrett started their logo design journey

Company name

Expensify: Expense reports that don't suck!

Overview

Business travel was once a glamorous privilege. Now it's a tedious bore. Bring back the glory days in helping us design an iconic logogram (eg, a picture to accompany our company name) that captures the essence of fast, electronic expense reporting, but in a style that would feel at home on the pages of a 1960's fashion magazine, printed on the tail of an international jet liner, or emblazoned in chrome on the hood of a vintage foreign luxury car. This is about bold shape and luscious style, not bland Web-2.0-isms. So no gradients. No faded reflections. 2, 3 colors max.

Tell us a bit about who you are and the people you reach

Business travelers, rank-and-file employees, huddled masses that are sick and tired of paying extra for the privilege of 1" of extra leg room.

Let's face it: expense reports suck. They're tedious, time consuming, and downright insulting: you're extending 0% interest loans to your employer, and begging to get paid back. Everything about business travel today sucks, and this is magnified by the dread of filing an expense report when you are done.

Expensify is different. Our expense reports don't suck. We are not business as usual, and our brand needs to reflect that.

Requirements

A specific, compelling graphic that:

1) Captures some essential or symbolic element of business travel and/or electronic expense reporting, or
2) Plays off our name (Expensify) in some clever but not overly-cute fashion, or
3) Just looks totally abstract but frickin' cool.

It should look good in 1-3 colors -- something that could be silk-screened, made from precious metals, even stamped onto stationary. Something that feels like an original vintage design.

Remember: everything was done by hand back then; computers didn't exist yet. Accordingly, no gradients, lens flares, soft reflections, drop shadows, or trite Web 2.0-isms. You should be able to draw this thing with a nice dark marker, without resorting to extraneous Photoshop effects.

For inspiration, take a look at the logos, colors, and design of 1960's airlines, automobiles, architecture, furniture, fashion, etc.

You're welcome to accompany the logogram with the actual logo text, but this is *not required*. We're looking for the logogram itself (eg, the graphic); the text is not required.